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Life Line
In The Pathfinder Project '' |image= |series= |production=40840-243 |producer(s)= |story= John Bruno and Robert Picardo |script= Robert J. Doherty, Raf Green and Brannon Braga |director=Terry Windell |imdbref=tt0708922 |guests= Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Tamara Craig Thomas as Haley and Jack Shearer as Admiral Hayes |previous_production=Live Fast and Prosper |next_production=Muse |episode=VGR S06E24 |airdate=10 May 2000 |previous_release=Fury |next_release=The Haunting of Deck Twelve |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2377) |previous_story=Live Fast and Prosper |next_story=Muse }} Summary When Earth's "Pathfinder Project" transmits its first block of data to Voyager, the Doctor receives disturbing news — Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of modern holography and the Doctor's program, is dying. Hoping to save this "father" he never met, whose likeness he shares, the Doctor's program is transmitted back to the Alpha Quadrant. Instead of being pleased with the Doctor's attempts to help, Doc Zimmerman is completely standoffish. Zimmerman tells the Doctor that he is simply a Mark One hologram. He has been examined by the Mark Two, Mark Three and Mark Four, in addition to the finest "real" doctors in Starfleet, and none of them have been able to help him. Barclay points out that the Doctor has been running almost continuously for six years and that he has seen things that most doctors couldn't even imagine. Zimmerman eventually becomes frustrated with all of the Doctor's questioning and he abruptly instructs the computer to transmit the Doctor to the living quarters. Meanwhile, Barclay pleads with Counselor Troi to return from the U.S.S. Enterprise in order to counsel Doc Zimmerman. However, when she does show up, things seem to be worse between the two doctors. Troi tries to convince Zimmerman that the Doctor has developed a promising treatment. While the arguing continues between the Doctor and Zimmerman, Barclay discovers a problem with the Doctor's program. His program is unraveling and there is nothing that Barclay can do because the damage is too severe. Zimmerman is the only one who can save the Doctor, but of course he refuses to help a "replaceable" computer program. In an attempt to convince him to help the Doctor, Zimmerman's right-hand hologram Haley tells him that she will ask to be installed elsewhere unless he does something to save the Doctor. Zimmerman successfully identifies an error within the Doctor's pattern buffer. Thankfully, the Doctor is able to stop him from changing his personality subroutine as well. In the process, the two seem to make peace with each other and Doc Zimmerman finally agrees to treatment. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Spornan on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 7:10 pm: Why is Astrometrics recieving transmissions? Perhaps the Astrometric sensors are better at detecting long distance comm traffic that the regular subspace transceivers. # Zodiac on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 7:42 pm: I guess Deanna isn't the airhead we always thought she was :-) ("He's hiding something!"). Her "jerk" outburst was a bit out of character, though. Surely the best counselor in the fleet could've handled the situation more calmly. Even the best counselor in the fleet can get frustrated at times. # Merat on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 7:42 pm: That "spy-fly" would only work on holodecks, wouldnt it? Dustin Westfall on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 2:21 am: Well, all they would need to perfect the portable holo-projector that the Doctor uses and minuturize it, but once they do, they have the ability to spy on just about anybody. Planning ahead, and hoping a little, but not impossible to believe. # Brian Lombard on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 7:48 pm: Everyone seems to have forgotten the Long-Term Medical Hologram Zimmerman was designing when he visited DS9. Nomention of it here whatsoever. Merat on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 7:51 pm: It was the EMH-Mark2, but he decided not to use Bashir's image.Brian Lombard on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 8:04 pm: I believe the Mark-2 was never referred to as a Long-Term Medical Hologram. # Brian Lombard on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 8:04 pm: When the EMH was first examining Zimmerman, he asked him if he'd left the solar system. Zimmerman replied that he hadn't left the solar system in 6 years. But near the end, Zimmerman says he returned early from a conference on Vulcan to treat the female hologram, and she gave a stardate from this season. So he has left the solar sytem in the last six years. Or is Vulcan in our system? This confusion could ba a symptom of the illness. # Shane Tourtellotte on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 8:30 pm: The Great Red Spot moved latitude, from beneath Jupiter Station to above it in establishing shots made from the exact same angle. I do not think the Spot migrates significantly in latitude. Any exo-meteorologists care to back me up? '' Dustin Westfall on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 2:21 am:'' Your assuming that the station is in a geosyncronous orbit. If it's orbit was variable, the spot could appear to be in different positions without having moved, it would have been the station that moved. # Jason on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 9:00 pm: If parts of the Doc's program can be extracted, why can't they extract the medical knowlage and transmit that to starfleet and have them install it into a Mark 4? That might not be possible due to compatibility issues. # Why can't they copy the Doc? TomM on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 9:41 pm: Chaos theory says that if a system is complex enough it can't be reproduced exactly. For the most part the Star Trek franchise has respected this. Replicated food tastes a little off. Transporters can't be used to clone people. (Right, Lt Tom Riker?) and a holocharacter who's been online for six years has too many minor subroutines. Except there's already been an episode told from the POV of a back-up copy of the Doctor. Merat on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 9:44 pm: Maybe the back-up module was made specifically to do that by Dr. Z and no one on board (not even 7o9? or wiz-kid Kim) could replace it? # Corey Hines on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 10:34 pm: Zimmerman considers giving the Voyager back a Mark 4 EMH. Given that there are no other doctors on the Voyager, wouldn't a LMH have been a better idea? That's what they were designed for, right? Unless Zimmerman abandoned the idea when he found out Bashir was genetically enhanced. Aren't there any other doctors in Starfleet he could have modelled it after? It may not be possible to replace the HoloDoc with an LMH – even one that had HoloDoc’s appearance and memories – due to bandwith and/or storage issues. # Steve Oostrom on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 10:48 pm: Admiral Hayes informs that two "deep space exploration" ships have been sent out to meet Voyager. Of course, Hayes could not be more specific on the class of the ships. Also, sending out two ships to meet up with Voyager isn't going to help much unless the ships are much faster than Janeway's ship. This also implies that preassigned rendezvous co-ordinates have been given too, or will be given. In addition, they'll take six to eight years to meet up with Voyager. I hope Starfleet Command can still communicate with these ships, since in no more than little over a year, Voyager will be home. :-) Anonymous on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 11:17 pm: I'm assuming that Admirals Hayes escaped in an escape pod from his ship from First Contact after it was destroyed. Maybe they have perfected transporter cloning......ooohhhhahhhh on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 11:04 am: Anonymous, I agree with you from the standpoint of Admiral Hayes... He was killed in First Contact by the Borg destroying his ship, otherwise why would Picard take control over the fleet? It's Captain Picard, no wait, it's just Plantman on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 1:18 pm: Perhaps Picard took control of the fleet because the Admiral was injured and had no ship to control the fleet from. (Kinda difficult to control a fleet from an escape pod.) # Steve Oostrom on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 - 10:48 pm: With all of this newfound contact between Voyager and Starfleet Command, why are the crew from Janeway on down not wearing the "First Contact" uniforms yet? Alleycat on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 11:31 am: Nobody has given a good reason why they haven't changed their uniforms by now? They have had several communications, so if they are a Starfleet vessel, and have been abiding by Starfleet rules and regulations, doesn't that also include dress codes? Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 12:43 pm: About the uniforms, Starfleet dose not suddenly jump to the new uniforms. On the Star Trek: Borg CD-ROM they wear late-TNG uniforms with VGR commuincators (The CD-ROM is set 10 years after Wolf 359, between the 6th and 7th season of Voyager.) In the past scenes of Wolf 359, we see the earliest known use of DS9 uniforms. Obvoiusly, SF phases in new uniforms slowly. And since Voyager is thousands of light years away, they were probably told to keep the DS9 uniforms until they get home.PaulG on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 2:10 pm: I am sure that replicating more up-to-date uniforms is low priority on the ship that still (supposeably) has replicator rations. Then again, you have to wonder how long those uniforms last. Did the crew come with a closet full of spare uniforms? You would think that by now the original uniforms would have worn out to some extent and need replacement. If they are going to replicate replacement uniforms, I suppose they could use the new style. Maybe we will see them soon. Jwb52z on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 3:00 pm: PaulG, you don't remember the uniform "fresher" do you? They refresh their dirty uniforms by having it run through the replicator again, and by using the same matter used to make the first one, they don't waste replicator power or rations.SSJ SuperSonic on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 10:39 pm: Considering the situation Voyager is in, I think new uniforms is pretty much on the bottom of the priority list. Using their energy reserves to produce parts required to replace shuttle craft, or augmenting their defensive systems is more important than updating the crew's wardrobe. Besides, visually seeing the current uniforms isn't the same as having the design... and I don't think Starfleet would waste what little space they have in their transmissions to send that info.Keith Alan Morgan on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - 12:58 am: It doesn't save energy to run their uniforms through the replicator. The replicator has to be powered to refresh the uniforms in the first place. It doesn't matter if it is the same matter or new matter, simply running the replicator will drain power. Earl Allison on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - 5:04 am: Does it really matter whether or not running the replicators uses up a lot of power or not? It's been made pretty clear from the number of times the ship has been trashed and rebuilt, the number of shuttles lost, and the number of photorps that have been used that any notion of finite resources on Voyager has been abandoned -- unless they want to make a plot point out of it. PaulG on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - 11:31 am: Nope, I do not remember the uniform "fresher." What episode was it in? Jwb52z on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - 12:14 pm: In almost any episode where a uniform was dirty or damaged, it was rerun through the replicator to be "refreshed." ScottN on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 - 12:25 pm: Potential anti-nit. Given that matter and energy are interchangeable, and assuming that the replicators work by converting energy to a specific form of matter, and further assuming that while the Second Law of Thermodynamics applies, that 24th century science can make Matter/Energy conversion 99.99999% (add as many 9s as you like) efficient… When you put a uniform in the replicator to be "refreshed", there is a minimal loss of energy (i.e. the uniform is converted to energy and then back to a uniform). When you put a *DIRTY* uniform into the replicator, you may actually break even, as the dirt is matter that is converted to energy, and that energy can be used to make up for the 2nd law inefficiencies. I know it's technobabble, but it's actually 20th century science, implemented by 24th century engineering. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 12:11 am:''Why can't the Doc just scan Zimmerman from behind? Why does Zimmerman have to face the Doc? '''A little thing known as professional courtesy!' # If the Doctor can't move because his mobility subroutine has been removed, then how come we see his mouth move? Jwb52z on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 12:56 am: Speech subroutines control his speech. Mobility doesn't include your mouth or head, but only those parts required for moving yourself about. # ScottN on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 12:47 am: They couldn't have deleted a another megaquad of useless stuff from the Doc's program so that he could carry some text messages from everyone else? Jwb52z on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 12:56 am: Not if you consider him a person and alive. If you do consider him alive and a person you can't just chop parts of him off because it is inconvenient. Dustin Westfall on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 2:21 am: But isn't that what they were doing? They cut out quite a bit of the Doc's hobbies and abilities for the sake of the transmission. If there was anything else that could be cut, why wouldn't you? I would think that Doc would be at least a little sympathetic to that.Jwb52z on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 8:16 am: They are not removing enough of himself to make him not himself or able to do his job. # Hans Thielman on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 7:30 am: I wonder if the laws governing the Jupiter station recognize holographic wills or or whether Zimmerman was planning to have witnesses attest to his will at some point. TomM on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 8:19 am: In today's law, a handwritten will is called a holographic will, and if the handwriting is verified, many jurisdictions accept it as legal and binding even without witnesses. So I don't see any problem with a truly holographic will. It is easier to authenticate, and to determine that there was no coersion. # Aaron Dotter on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 8:40 am: I was surprised that Starfleet would just assign all the Mark I's to waste tankers. So, if Starfleet decided that Data did not meet their expectations, would they just assign him to waste extraction? This is bordering on slavery to me, I would think that the EMHs would not put up wuth it. Come to think of it, that reminds me of that Voyager episode with the wacko hologram who did a similar thing. Ed Watson on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 9:16 am: I don't think we can compare Data to a hologram. There are similarities of course, but Data does have rights that holograms don't. Going back to "The Measure of a Man" (one of my favorites), Data fought long and hard to be granted the same rights as any sentient being. As far as holograms, remember how the Doc was treated early in the series? THAT'S the level of respect holograms get in the Federation. Even the sentient Moriarty got tricked into thinking he had gained some control over his life. In reality he hadn't. I'm sure no one thought twice about ripping the medical subroutines out of the Mach 1s and replacing them with plasma scrubbing abilities. Aaron Dotter on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 8:08 pm: I would have to say, responding to Ed, that I understand what you are saying, but I was trying to say that I think the only reason Starfleet does not build a whole group of androids to do menial tasks is because of Data. If we have one sentient android running around, we wouldn't want build any more who would not have the same rights. By assinging all the EMH 1's to waste duty they have essentially created a race of slaves. I was surprised that the Doctor was not more angry- I would have been if I was a hologram. My point is that if the Doctor is able to do his job well, and grow and expand beyond it, why shouldn't these other EMH 1's be given the same chance?ooohhhhahhhh on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 11:04 am: I'm sure it is not slavery for the Federation to use the EMH Mark 1's in plasma conduits. They probably reprogrammed the Mark 1's so that working in plasma conduits is their primary function. They probably have no positronic brain or anything. For example, a whole group of sentient Datas mining ore in on a planet is slavery. A bunch of automated 21st century robots mining ore is not slavery. Matt Pesti on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 10:36 pm: My Guess would be that the Federation wants AI slaves. Data was the best and that is why they want him. The courts said he was a lifeform. They tried getting his daughter on what was "Child Abuse" charges. They Gave up on him and started working on complex holograms. They made them their automatons. Robots and machines being servants and not man's equal walks hand in hand with taking blows at religion and an awful lot of shagging disguised as human need for the opposite sex as Star Trek Themes.''D.W. March on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 11:38 pm:''I have a theory about the differences between the LMH and the EMH-2. Dr. Zim gets all worked up because his Mark I's proved to be so useless. This decomissioning probably happened WHILE he was working on the LMH. Since the LMH was probably based on a similar template as EMH-I, he more than likely scrapped them both and went to work on EMH-2, which was being used by the fleet at the time. Remember, LMH was just an idea for outposts and places like that, which have been getting along fine without holographic health care for as long as we've known. # Scott McClenny on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 10:07 am: Ok,Janeway says that they have the latest news from the Alpha Quadrant in the transmission that Starfleet sent also later on Reg tells Holodoc that the fly was made for covert spying;sooo how come neither of them mentioned the big event that occured in the Alpha Quadrant since VOYAGER has been stuck in the Delta Quadrant the Dominion War? It would seem to me that a war where billions of Federation citizens have been killed would be important enough to mention! Jwb52z on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 11:01 am: You evidently missed the episode where they found out about the Dominion war the other times they were able to make contact. # DonnaL on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 11:12 am: Didn't the captain send logs and reports and stuff the last time Barclay made contact? So shouldn't Starfleet Command already know about their casualties and Maquis crewmembers Mandy on Thursday, May 11, 2000 - 6:02 pm: Status of the Marquis? Interactions with the Borg? Didn't Voyager transmit its mission logs over that Midas Array thing earlier this season? Doesn't Starfleet know almost everything? Seniram 11:34, July 18, 2018 (UTC) Maybe they are insisting on confirmation! # The Doctor is a program! Does no one else in the 24th century understand that this means he can be COPIED?!! They keep talking about his matrix like it's some sort of corporeal thing that can't be replicated. Perhaps the process would run the risk of the copy of being unusable. #Jupiter Station was interesting, looked like a collection of saucer sections. This could be due to a standardised component construction policy. # Anonymous on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 3:22 pm: Isn't it about time the Federation granted amnesty to the Maquis? Jwb52z on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 3:34 pm: Anonymous, they've got no reason to give the Maquis amnesty YET. The only way that could work is if Janeway and the senior staff could persuade the Federation court to give them amnesty. Anonymous on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 9:26 pm: I meant a general amnesty to everyone in that category. Governments sometimes do that after a war. Jwb52z on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 9:40 pm: Anonymous, like I said, they have no reason to do that. Starfleet isn't the type of entity to do things for no reason AS a group. PaulG on Saturday, May 13, 2000 - 10:39 am: Actually, they would have a reason to grant the Maquis amnesty - the Dominion War. At the time, they could use all the friends they could get. However, there is also a good reason why the Maquis was not granted amnesty - they were almost all DEAD. Except for the Voyager contingent (which they wouldn't know about), those already in prison and the small group that Eddington and Sisko rescued, the Dominion totally wiped them out. Plus, when you consider that the Federation considers two years in a comfortable prison a severe punishment, you lose some of the urgency for a blanket pardon. With so few numbers to deal with, pardons are probably offered on an individual basis as warranted. # John A. Lang on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 7:42 am: How much time has passed between "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" and this episode? Dr. Zimmerman seems older than what he should be. Thande on Sunday, February 27, 2005 - 3:48 pm: John, I think Zimmerman was supposed to have prematurely aged due to his disease. # John A. Lang on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 7:15 pm: Why doesn't EMH tranquilize Zimmerman so he can do a medical scan? Zimmerman is obviously irrational...sedate him! That could distort the scan results. Notes Category:Episodes Category:Voyager